This F1 season is already expected to be more competitive and entertaining than in recent years

After Sebastian Vettel won the season-opening race in Australia to take Ferrari's first win since the Singapore Grand Prix in 2015, Lewis Hamilton struck back on Sunday for reigning champions Mercedes in China.ET CONTRIBUTORS | April 12, 2017, 08:25 IST

Two winners from the first two races, the sport’s best drivers locked in a budding rivalry with the potential to flare up into a titanic championship clash, cars that are seriously quick and drivers enjoying their racing again – F1's new rules are certainly delivering the spectacle they promised.

After Sebastian Vettel won the season-opening race in Australia to take Ferrari's first win since the Singapore Grand Prix in 2015, Lewis Hamilton struck back on Sunday for reigning champions Mercedes in China.

The pair head into the next race in Bahrain tied on points at the top of the overall standings, with 43 apiece. The last time two or more drivers from different teams were locked in a battle for the championship was 2010. Five drivers from three teams fought it out that year, with four still in contention heading into the season finale.

Hamilton's rivalry with teammate Nico Rosberg lit up the sport in an era of Mercedes dominance. But, while the battle between the former childhood friends went down to the wire twice in the last three years, it lacked the drama a Vettel vs Hamilton battle promises. Either Vettel or Hamilton have won the title in six of the last seven seasons. They have been the best drivers of this decade but have never had a head-to-head battle for the title before.

Ferrari, with their Mercedes-matching pace in China, confirmed their race-winning form in Australia was no one-off. If the two teams remain evenly-matched throughout the year, that could change.

Apart from delivering the competitive shake-up the sport needed, F1's new rules, as intended, have also delivered cars that are faster, more spectacular to watch and harder to drive. Hamilton's pole position lap in Australia was the fastest ever set at the track but only one-and-half seconds quicker than his own qualifying benchmark from a year ago.

The Briton's pole lap in China, however, smashed Michael Schumacher's outright best effort set in 2004 by over half-a-second and Rosberg's session-topping qualifying time from last year by over three-and-a-half seconds. The triple champion's fastest lap in the race, too, was a remarkable four-and-a-half seconds quicker than Nico Hulkenberg's 2016 benchmark.

"You know what makes me really happy is you're all up here really smiling," former-racerturned-television pundit Martin Brundle said to the drivers on the podium. "You're enjoying these cars aren't you, you're enjoying the championship this year."

"We are," Hamilton replied. "Because it's that close a battle, and the cars look better and they are nicer to drive."

In order to make them go faster, F1 cars this year are generating a lot more downforce than earlier. As a result, they are throwing up a larger wake of turbulent air behind them, making overtaking harder.

The lack of passing in Melbourne's season-opener at the unconventionally tight and twisting Albert Park track raised some concerns. But the racing around the wide sweeps and long straights of the Shanghai circuit, which last year saw more overtaking than any other with 128 passes, put those worries to rest.

Max Verstappen, who charged through the field to third after having started 16th, passed nine cars on the opening lap alone. Sebastian Vettel's lunge down the inside of Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen followed by a spectacular wheel-banging pass on Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull provided another highlight of the race.

It showed overtaking in F1's new era is still possible but, in a far cry from the DRS-assisted passes criticised for their ease, that drivers will now have to use all of their skill and risk a lot more to make a move stick.

“Any racing driver in the history or Formula One would like those moves on his CV, because they were committed weren't they?” said Brundle to Vettel, referring to his move on Ricciardo. "It's the way it should be in my opinion," replied the four-time champion. "You need to make it stick so it shouldn't come for free."

In fact, segment leaders like Maruti Suzuki, Tata Motors and Hero MotoCorp have reported de-growth of 34.3 per cent, 45 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively giving a clear indication of a prolonged slowdown in the sector.